Abstract

Ellipsometry is a powerful and well-established optical technique used in the characterization of materials. It works by combining the components of elliptically polarized light in order to draw information about the optical system. We propose an ellipsometric experimental set-up to study polarization interference in the total internal reflection regime for Gaussian laser beams. The relative phase between orthogonal states can be measured as a power oscillation of the optical beam transmitted through a dielectric block, and the orthogonal components are then mixed by a polarizer. We show under which conditions the plane wave analysis is valid, and when the power oscillation can be optimized to reproduce a full pattern of oscillation and to simulate quarter- and half-wave plates.

© 2018 Chinese Laser Press

Ellipsometric Measurement of the Polarization Transfer Function of an Optical System*

R. M. A. Azzam and N. M. Bashara
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(3) 336-340 (1972)

High-precision system for automatic null ellipsometric measurement

Henian Zhu, Liguo Liu, Yiwu Wen, Zhengde Lü, and Baizhe Zhang
Appl. Opt. 41(22) 4536-4540 (2002)

Optimization of output power in a fiber optical parametric oscillator

Lei Jin, Amos Martinez, and Shinji Yamashita
Opt. Express 21(19) 22617-22627 (2013)

Ellipsometric calculations for nonabsorbing thin films with linear refractive-index gradients

C. K. Carniglia
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 7(5) 848-856 (1990)

Ellipsometric determination of polarization-dependent transmission in resonant feedback systems

Wolfgang Holzapfel, Ulrich Neuschaefer-Rube, Jan Christian Braasch, and Nejat Mahdavi
Appl. Opt. 46(9) 1416-1428 (2007)